Night of the Sakura Tree Hill
by 2am-ramen
Summary: Hinami and Ayato have been childhood friends, growing up in their quaint village situated high up in the mountains. On one night, the two witness an extraordinary event that leaves them spellbound. Hinami soon leaves for the city, but five years later she comes back - only to wonder what was real and what wasn't. AU - Ayato x Hinami - Light fic.
1. Chapter 1 - Introduction

**Introduction**

* * *

 _Look at the stars._

 _They're the same stars as last week._

 _Last year._

 _Same as when we were kids._

 _When we weren't even born._

 _In a hundred years,_

 _No one will ever know who we are._

 _But they'll know those same stars._

Hinami and Ayato have been childhood friends, growing up in their quaint village situated high up in the mountains. The two share a strong bond despite the quarrels and bickering that have become part of their daily life as they both grow up. They spend a lot of time with each other, and one of their favorite places is the Sakura Tree Hill. Ayato tells her stories as they lie down and gaze at the endless night sky. This is how Hinami and Ayato grow up.

On one night, the two witness an extraordinary event that leaves them spellbound. Hinami soon leaves for the city, but five years later she comes back - only to wonder what was real and what wasn't.

Just a little story about introspection, nostalgia, life in the mountains and the brilliant gift that is the universe.

* * *

 **A/N -** Hiya! ninhelium here! Its been a REAL while since I last wrote anything - oh my god, ideas, IDEAS but no time and no motivation xD This is the sucky side of adult-ing, aka, 22-year-old-college-intern-with-too-many-things-to-do-and-zero-time-or-direction.

Anyways!

Night of the Sakura Tree Hill is a fic I wrote WAAAAAAAAAAY back for the Kpop commnunity. But I no longer write Kpop fics, I've lost interest and I'd rather write about my favorite ships in anime/manga now and in the future.  
I considered making this a Yatori fic for the Noragami fandom - but I've already written two Noragami fics and Yato wouldn't fit the male character in this story _although_ , the ending would make more sense in the Noragami world. Then I thought, why not make it touken? But kaneki wouldn't fit the male char either so WELP! Ayato x Hinami it is! Besides, this pairing is underrated and I love them so much T_T  
So with this intro chapter, I hope you like this fic! Please review once I post up the next chapters :3  
Out!


	2. Chapter 2 - Firefly

"Hinami!"

The young girl continued to work diligently on the fairy lights, her forehead creased with lines as she frowned in concentration. Beads of sweat rolled down the sides of her forehead, and her knees and neck were starting to hurt - but not for the life of her would she stop halfway. The entire village knew how much she loved the summer festival. Her excitement was infectious. However, lost in her focus, she did not hear the annoyed voice calling her, albeit sounding slightly furious by now.

"Hinami! __Oi__!" She jumped with a start, finally glancing behind her - only to be greeted by an angry scowl. She smiled.

"Hello Ayato."

"'Hello Ayato' my ass!" He snapped. "Are you deaf, you dumbass?!" The angry 14 year old stomped over to the 13 year old, still scowling. "I've been calling to you for the last 10 minutes!"

"Sorry," Hinami looked apologetic. "I wanted to hang these up but then the wires are all really worn, I had to fix them with tape. I'm still not done," She gestured at the bundle of fairy lights lying on the porch of the wooden house. "Do you want to help?"

Ayato scowled even harder and mocked her. "No, I don't __want to__ _ _help__ with your fairy lights. I have more important work to do back in the fields."

Hinami couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, tilting her head and glancing up at Ayato. "Of course, important work as in raking up the cow dung. I'm sorry I forgot Ayato."

"Like you're one to talk. One of these days I'll shove you into it and then we'll see if you're still laughing." He retorted and turned on his heel to make his way home. He paused, "I called to tell you that your Irimi's looking for you. She's kinda pissed." His lips turned up in a superior smirk as Hinami turned around to face him, genuine disbelief clearly visible on her face. Irimi never got mad. __Maybe he was making it up?__

"Don't say I didn't warn you." He hummed and headed off, his hands shoved into his muddy pockets.

Hinami said nothing as she watched him retreat, the sun had almost set and the golden lights of the fireflies had started to dot the air around them. Now between a bush and then high up in the branches of the trees. It was the middle of summer now and Hinami liked this time of the year the best - when everyone danced to music and stayed up well into the night, when you could eat steamed sweet potatoes sitting on the porch during the summer thunderstorms and the weeks were littered with festivals.

Ayato's retreating back would disappear now, his house was just around the next bend.

"Wait, Ayato!" He stopped, his eyebrow raised as he turned to look at her. "What?"

"Do you want go up tonight?" Hinami's eyes reflected the last traces of the fading sunset. A breeze ruffled their hair and their light clothes, cooling the day's perspiration off their skins. Ayato couldn't see her face very clearly; Hinami was quite a distance away from him now but her voice told him she was eager. It had been a while since they last visited.

"Yeah yeah." He raised a hand in response and trudged up the road, as she watched his figure grow smaller and smaller until the mist engulfed him far off in the distance.

-x-x-

"Ayato! Hinami's here!" Ayato woke up with a start and forced his eyes open. He was so tired, his limbs ached and he felt numb and heavy all over – Nishiki had not shown up that morning and he had been forced to till the soil all day. And it was cold too. But that wasn't very new because up here in the mountains it was always cold, all year around.

"Shithead! You get down here right now!" He winced at his Touka's sharp tone and cursed under his breath. "I'm coming, I'm coming, quit screeching!" Crap, he'd overslept. Grumbling at his own incompetency, he pulled on a faded sweater and ran down the stairs, three steps at a time.

"Hey, watch it." Touka grabbed a hold of his arm when he nearly slipped on the last three steps. "If you break any more bones, we won't be able to pay for it you know, prick."

"Oh shut up." The younger boy glared at his sister who was shot an equally venomous glare back at him. "And stop smirking!" Ayato must have blushed a bit because Tsukiyama giggled and held up his hands in mock surrender.

"I'm going!" Ayato called over his shoulder as he half ran, half speed-walked to the front door.

"Don't be too late!" Touka called after him, but that received no response as Ayato had already stepped outside. The porch was dimly lit with a light bulbs, but the moon was full and bright, casting a haunting glow on the surroundings. Besides that, there were a million fireflies, flitting in between the dense greenery. His house, just like every other house in the area, was pretty to look at. Simple wooden architecture and minimalistic - and he had never admitted it, but the pretty sakura pattern on the wind-chime that Kaneki had gifted Touka last year was very beautiful.

To say that the mountains were anything less of a natural wonder would be an understatement. Up here, the soil was very fertile and thousands of flowers would bloom in different seasons, coloring the hills with their vibrant hues. Fruits and vegetables in abundance to the point that sometimes nobody wanted them. The conifers were his favorite trees – they remained green all year around and the smell of pine cones always assaulted his nose. Rare fruits and wild berries would grow on the trees and shrubs and the squirrels and birds would get the first pick, and when they ripened and fell, the rabbits would steal them away before any human could have a go. A green carpet of fresh grass was the robe of the hills - friend to anyone who wanted to sit down and gaze at the world below - and foe, if you ran around on bare feet and the grass was wet. Narrow pathways wound their way around the curvature of the mountains - patterns almost carved into the Earth since people had made the mountains their home. And then of course, modern technology had brought roads into the scenery, hairpin bends around the peaks which had made it possible for people to drive up and down. Early morning brought dense fog and mist, and the sun beat down softly as afternoon and evening wore on. The night gave in to clear, crisp, fresh air and soothing breezes, and a fantastic display of the dots of lights in the night sky. Scores and scores of stars, all twinkling brightly, and the core of the Milky Way, spread out for all the creatures of the Earth to see.

It took him a while to realize that there was a figure crouching behind a bush.

"What are you hiding for?" Ayato said lazily, his hands shoved into his jeans pockets.

"Shhh!" The figure replied. "Keep quiet, you're loud!"

"Touchy." He sniffed, casually noting that she was wearing the hairclip he'd given her last year as her birthday present - and walked around the bush to see what Hinami was looking at. He crouched down beside her. "What are you looking at?"

Hinami sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve. Then she held out her cupped hands. In it lay a firefly, glowing in pulses.

"Ah…" He sighed and traced a delicate wing with his finger. "I see."

"It's dying." Hinami's voice shook, her lower lip quivered, and his eyes rose to meet hers. "It's dying, Ayato. It's over." A lone tear escaped and rolled down her cheek, falling on to his wrist. He sighed and looked at the firefly again, it's glowing back flickering. A few seconds passed before the light disappeared. Hinami started crying.

"Hey… hey, it's okay." Ayato muttered softly into her hair as Hinami's head leaned against his shoulder. He blew air out of his cheeks and rose a hand to pat her shoulder. The girl had always been a crybaby and she still hadn't grown out of it. He had to somehow see that she became a tougher person - or she wouldn't be able to face much of what life would bring her someday.

"Why do they have to die so soon?" Hinami hiccuped, her fingers digging a small pit into the soil beneath the bush - a grave for the firefly.

Ayato couldn't say anything to that. He just continued to pat her back and comfort her as best as he could. His parents had died when he and Touka were very young and he had tried to cope with it for years - but he realized that you couldn't cope with death in any other form other than acceptance. Death was inevitable. "You know…" He craned his neck up to look at the bright night sky.

"Some of the most beautiful things we can touch never last long."

The crying faded slowly. A few sniffles. The moon shone brilliantly, its numerous impact craters in stunningly sharp detail even to his eyes.

"The things we can't touch… they last forever and ever."


	3. Chapter 3 - Summer Triangle

p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Tell me a story."/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Again?/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" I/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"'m running out of stories though./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""T/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"hen tell me the story of Orihime and Hikoboshi. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"16 year-old Ayato/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" sighed, /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"as the hair falling over his forehead fluttered in the chilly breeze. It was August and the stars above his head twinkled in all their glory with only faint wisps of clouds twirling in between them like silk strings. H/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"is head rest/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"ed on his folded arms while Hinami lay beside him, knees bent and hands on her belly/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". Both /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"stared up at the clear night sky from up on the Sakura Tree Hill. /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"The/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" Hill was their favorite place - their secret place/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". Though it was called/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" the Sakura Tree Hill/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;", it was actually the edge of a cliff. A large /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"rock on the slopes of the mountain, which had crumbled and eroded over the ages that/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" stopped abruptly/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" in jagged edges/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" and fell away into hundreds of thousands of feet of depth. It was terrifying, especially for th/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"e/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" few tourists who occasionally roamed this little known mountain village. But for /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Ayato/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" and /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Hinami/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;", it had been a secret haven since childhood./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"The cliff was where both of them felt the most calm and peaceful. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"They /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"often came up during the night/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;", just for stargazing/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". He would tell her old folk tales and teach her about the stars and constellations. Sometimes she would sing and he would listen. Other times they just lay together in comfortable silence./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" The cliff was the/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" sixth/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" highest /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"point/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" in their mountain village/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;", the others too dangerous to go up/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". The edge tipped up like a /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"jagged /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"nose, and /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"a few feet from the edges/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" was a lone cherry blossom tree that had somehow grown out of the rocky stone ground/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". The locals had thus given the cliff the name of Sakura Tree Hill. It was j/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"ust the cherry tree, the grey cliff, and the vast universe stretched out above them./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""You never get tired of that one do you?" He glanced to his left /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"and Hinami smiled at him/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". "Well, okay. Here goes."/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"A very long time ago/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;", there was-/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""How long /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"ago/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"?"/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Tch! I haven't even started yet, don't interrupt, idiot!" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Ayato frowned and Hinami chuckled/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". It wasn't that /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"she/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"hadn/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"'t heard/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" all these stories, but she liked /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"it when he told them to her./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" And he didn't particularly mind. He glanced at her surreptitiously./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Go on." She /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"smiled/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" and closed her eyes, breathing in the refreshing air./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""So/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" a very long time /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"ago, there was a princess/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" called Orihime/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"S/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"he wove these beautiful clothes by the Amanogawa – Milky Way - River. She /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"worked so hard on weaving clothes that she began to feel lonely and sad, soon falling into despair because she thought she would never find love/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"."/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"br /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"br /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"br /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Mhmm/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Hinami/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" hummed, wisps of her /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"short /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"hair blowing in the light breeze, her eyes closed and her face serene./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Princess Orihime's father was a God of the Heavens/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" and couldn/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"'t watch his daughter wallow in her sadness/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". He arranged for her to meet up with Hikoboshi, who was a cow herder living on the other side of the Amanogawa River. The two met and fell in love instantly, and got married. Their love was so deep, that Orihime /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"forgot all about/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" weaving/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" the damned clothes/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;", and Hikoboshi neglected his /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"fat /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"cows, /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"causing them to stomp all over the Heavens/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"."/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Hinami squeaked, trying to suppress a laughter at Ayato/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"'s humorous choice of words and his lips turned up slightly. He was pleased. /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""C/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"an you imagine a herd of cows/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"," /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Hinami/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"laughed/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". "/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Stomping all over/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" the heavens?! It's too funny!"/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Quit it," /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Ayato/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" chuckled and bonked her on the head lightly with his elbow. "You want me to continue or not?"/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"br /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Go on."/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Because both of them were neglecting their work and spending too much of time with /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"each other/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;", Orihime's father became angry and forbade them from seeing each other again. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"This broke the Princess/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"' heart and she begged her father to let her be with Hikoboshi./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""And?"/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="margin-bottom: 12.0000pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""And because he loved his daughter a lot, he agreed."/span/p  
p class="p" style="margin-bottom: 12.0000pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="margin-bottom: 12.0000pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""They could be with each other again?"/span/p  
p class="p" style="margin-bottom: 12.0000pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Yeah, but on one condition. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"They could only meet once a year - on the 7/spansupspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; vertical-align: super;"th/span/supspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" day of the 7/spansupspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; vertical-align: super;"th/span/supspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" month and only if Orihime continued to weave clothes and Hikoboshi tended to his cows. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"The first time they were allowed to meet, the Milky Way River was too difficult to cross. Princess Orihime became so /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"upset/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;", that a flock of magpies came and built a bridge for her. So once a year/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" on that date/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;", the two star-crossed lovers cross the bridge and /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"stay together/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" for a single night."/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"br /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Which stars are they supposed to be?"/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Well, they say that Princess Orihime is Vega," /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Ayato raised an arm and/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" pointed out a bright star/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" slightly to their left/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". "Hikoboshi is Altair, over there," Another bright star slightly /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"further/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" off. "And Deneb/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;", right there,/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"" A third and final star./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""R/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"epresents the bridge that brings them together." /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Hinami followed his motions with her own fingers and drew a triangle in the air. /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""These three form a triangle./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"" He continued./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"They call this the summer triangle, even though the stars are part of different constellations."/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Hinami/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" sighed, and stretched her arms on either side, one arm /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"falling softly on Ayato/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"'s chest. B/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"oth breathed in the cold air and stared at the sky. The very/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" same/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" Milky Way River /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"from the tale /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"was winding its way in the darkness of the sky, the core of it bright and full of dust clouds. Long moments of silence passed./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""It's /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"strange/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"." /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Hinami/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" said, quietly./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""What is?"/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""That right over there," She raised an arm and pointed at the stretch of the Milky Way. "Lies the center of the galaxy. Right there, there's a super massive black hole - something so strong, so dangerous that not even light can escape/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" - and that is what is/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" holding this very galaxy together./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" Holding us together. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" And we can /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"almost see this core, in that bright patch right in that very center/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"."/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Ayato/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" looked from her, to her outstretched arm /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"that was drawing patterns in the air, /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"to the galactic core. It was true/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" and he had been the first to show her this fact/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;". /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"He was in a way, happy about this - that his love for astronomy had caught on to her as well and that she was keen to learn more about the Universe - it made him happy that he had sparked this interest in her - that he had been the root cause of her love for the subject. But it also made him sad. If anything, Ayato wanted to stop time and stay like this with her - where she would always be by his side./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="margin-bottom: 12.0000pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""There's Sagittarius." He pointed out the constellation and her eyes followed his fingers./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"br /span/p  
p class="p" style="margin-bottom: 12.0000pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"And /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"there's /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Scorpius!/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Hinami/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"exclaimed/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" and pointed out a cluster of stars next to Sagittarius./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" Ayato nodded. He had taught her about Scorpius last year and was surprised she still recognized it./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""It's full of star/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"s. We are definitely in a world too small./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Hinami/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" whispered, h/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"er/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" voice barely audible. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"She had grown to love the stars and the maps of constellations they formed in the heavens because Ayato/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"'s passion for it had infected her like a virus. Sometimes when she drew in her sketchbook, she would draw the constellations or include the subject of astronomy into her sketches in some way and show it to him. The last time she had drawn a beautiful sketch of a wolf, connected by a series of dots much like the way constellations were and Ayato had liked it very much to the extent that he hung it up in his room. She didn't tell him she had drawn it for him because he reminded her of a wolf under the night sky - dark and mysterious and strong with his bright eyes always looking up, reflecting the cosmos./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Hey, Touka is making some spaghetti with spicy tomato-sauce." Ayato said casually. "Do you want to come over for dinner?" Hinami looked surprised./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Really? Onee-chan did? But isn't her cooking… y'know?" She wiggled her fingers and he rolled his eyes./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Yeah she sucks but Kaneki helped /spanemspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: italic; font-size: 11.0000pt;"her/span/emspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" and Tsukiyama was helping /spanemspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: italic; font-size: 11.0000pt;"them/span/emspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" so I guess it won't be inedible."/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Okay, I'll come." She tilted her head and smiled. Ayato's house was always noisy and filled with laughter and bickering because they ran a cafe. The rooms were all upstairs. /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"They lay in comfortable silence before/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" Hinami sat up slowly. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;""Um…Ayato have you-"/span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"But Hinami couldn/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"'t complete her sentence because at that very second,/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" something stunning and unbelievable unfolded before their very eyes./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"The cherry blossom tree/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"s/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" usually bloomed fully in the month of April /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"and t/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"his /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"particular lonely/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" tree was no different/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" -/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" it /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"burst into flowers /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"in April and /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Ayato and Hinami /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"often spen/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"t/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" evenings here. But now it was /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"summer/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" and the tree /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"had but/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" a few sparsely distributed flowers here and there./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"This night, however, was different. The two teenagers rose with a start and a loud gasp as the tree /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"burst into /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"bloom all of a sudden, flowers spontaneously blooming in clusters in mere seconds. Within a matter of minutes, the tree was covered in /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"various shades of /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" pink, not a single branch left bare. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Boy and girl /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"watched in utter disbelief as the flowers rustled in the wind – which for some reason was strangely stronger – and petals showered all around them, floating serenely. But that wasn't all. No sooner had the two wonder-struck teenagers brushed off petals from their laps, when the tree began to glow. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"The trunk lit up like a Christmas tree, an intricately complex system of vessels in magnificent display. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"Each and every single flower glowed brightly, in a color that wasn't describable, and the filaments in the center of each /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"bloom /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" glowed in a stunning shade of purple like tiny shards of glass./spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"A strange/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" sound /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"filled the air, a sound almost magical and other-wordly. The /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"tree/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"'s glow pulsated/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" for a few minutes like that/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" from dim to bright/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;", the ground/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"reverberating with a soothingly deep sound. The flowers glowed and they continued to fall all around them… until it stopped just as abruptly as it had started. The ground wasn't vibrating any more, the strange sound had died down, the /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"flowers/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" did not pulse… and the branches were bare once again. There was no trace of the flowers./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;" /span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"He was 16, she was 15 and t/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"hat night, the two witnessed something /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt;"they would never see again./span/p  
p class="p" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" align="justify" /p 


End file.
